The Burden of Necromacy
by Ry22
Summary: Juliet is afflicted with the powers of necromancy. See how this detail is woven in the original play.


**Author's Note: This is Romeo and Juliet rewritten as if Juliet had the powers of necromancy. This is my attempt at iambic pentameter and much of the original story is the same (every act not indicated below). Please comment but don't be too harsh!**

 **Key:**

 _Shakespeare's Original Words_

 **My New Words**

(Stage Directions)

Speaker:

Act III, Scene ii

Juliet:

 _Gallop apace, you fiery-footed steeds,_

 _Towards Phoebus' lodging: such a wagoner_

 _As Phaethon would whip you to the west,_

 _And bring in cloudy night immediately._

 _Spread thy close curtain, love-performing night,_

 _That runaway's eyes may wink and Romeo_

 _Leap to these arms, untalk'd of and unseen._

 _Lovers can see to do their amorous rites_

 _By their own beauties; or, if love be blind,_

 _It best agrees with night. Come, civil night,_

 _Thou sober-suited matron, all in black,_

 _And learn me how to lose a winning match,_

 _Play'd for a pair of stainless maidenhoods:_

 _Hood my unmann'd blood, bating in my cheeks,_

 _With thy black mantle; till strange love, grown bold,_

 _Think true love acted simple modesty._

 _Come, night; come, Romeo; come, thou day in night;_

 _For thou wilt lie upon the wings of night_

 _Whiter than new snow on a raven's back._

 _Come, gentle night, come, loving, black-brow'd night,_

 _Give me my Romeo; and, when he shall die,_

 _Take him and cut him out in little stars,_

 _And he will make the face of heaven so fine_

 _That all the world will be in love with night_

 _And pay no worship to the garish sun._

 _O, I have bought the mansion of a love,_

 _But not possess'd it, and, though I am sold,_

 _Not yet enjoy'd: so tedious is this day_

 _As is the night before some festival_

 _To an impatient child that hath new robes_

 _And may not wear them._

 **O Romeo** **, when shall I tell thee of**

 **Mine curse, mine burden, mine necromancy.**

 **What shall mine lord think of mine dark magick?**

 **I must tell thee no later than this night.**

 **Cursed untold secrets no one else knows.**

 **Never could I hath predict'd the outcome of**

 **The secret held closest to mine black heart.**

 **The ghosts pass their foretelling to me**

 **So I must act upon their dark wishes.**

 **As payment, death and life art mine to hath.**

' **Twas mine fault not 'fore I did not want this,**

 **But instead the craft of the Devil and stars.**

 _O, here comes my_ **coz,**

 **What bid him here at this time of day?**

(Enter Tybalt)

 **My most beloved cousin, what pleasure**

 **Brings you here this joyful afternoon.**

Tybalt:

 **I dislike being the cause of your pain,**

 **So I wilst keep you not in more suspense.**

 **I was murder'd by your lord, now banished**

Juliet:

 **Knowst thou about mine love, mine husband?**

 **No matter, hast thou any demands**

 **Fore I sent thou on to the afterlife?**

Tybalt:

 **Save thou dark magicks for other lost souls,**

 **Mine is not cruel enough for revenge.**

 **Instead, I give thou wisdom, useful later.**

 **Though your evil powers seem like a burden,**

 **Thou art equally gifted and cursed.**

Juliet:

 **Thankth thou for thou help and compassion.**

 **Now begone to a better life with God.**

(Exeunt Tybalt)

(Enter Nurse)

Juliet:

 **I hadst already heard the wretched news.**

 **O sorrowful fate that tears kin from kin,**

 **That banished mine lord from thine lady.**

Nurse:

 _There's no trust,_

 _No faith, no honesty in men; all perjured,_

 _All forsworn, all naught, all dissemblers._

 _Ah, where's my man? give me some aqua vitae:_

 _These griefs, these woes, these sorrows make me old._

 _Shame come to Romeo!_

Juliet:

 _Blister'd be thy tongue_

 _For such a wish! he was not born to shame:_

 _Upon his brow shame is ashamed to sit;_

 _For 'tis a throne where honour may be crown'd_

 _Sole monarch of the universal earth._

 _O, what a beast was I to chide at him!_

Nurse:

 _Will you speak well of him that kill'd your cousin?_

Juliet:

 _Shall I speak ill of him that is my husband?_

 _Ah, poor my lord, what tongue shall smooth thy name,_

 _When I, thy three-hours wife, have mangled it?_

 _But, wherefore, villain, didst thou kill my cousin?_

 _That villain cousin would have kill'd my husband:_

 _Back, foolish tears, back to your native spring;_

 _Your tributary drops belong to woe,_

 _Which you, mistaking, offer up to joy._

 _My husband lives, that Tybalt would have slain;_

 _And Tybalt's dead, that would have slain my husband:_

 _All this is comfort; wherefore weep I then?_

 _Some word there was, worser than Tybalt's death,_

 _That murder'd me: I would forget it fain;_

 _But, O, it presses to my memory,_

 _Like damned guilty deeds to sinners' minds:_

 _'Tybalt is dead, and Romeo-banished;'_

 _That 'banished,' that one word 'banished,'_

 _Hath slain ten thousand Tybalts. Tybalt's death_

 _Was woe enough, if it had ended there:_

 _Or, if sour woe delights in fellowship_

 _And needly will be rank'd with other griefs,_

 _Why follow'd not, when she said 'Tybalt's dead,'_

 _Thy father, or thy mother, nay, or both,_

 _Which modern lamentations might have moved?_

 _But with a rear-ward following Tybalt's death,_

 _'Romeo is banished,' to speak that word,_

 _Is father, mother, Tybalt, Romeo, Juliet,_

 _All slain, all dead. 'Romeo is banished!'_

 _There is no end, no limit, measure, bound,_

 _In that word's death; no words can that woe sound._

 _Where is my father, and my mother, nurse?_

Nurse:

 _Weeping and wailing over Tybalt's corse:_

 _Will you go to them? I will bring you thither._

Juliet:

 _Wash they his wounds with tears: mine shall be spent,_

 _When theirs are dry, for Romeo's banishment._

 _Take up those cords: poor ropes, you are beguiled,_

 _Both you and I; for Romeo is exiled:_

 _He made you for a highway to my bed;_

 _But I, a maid, die maiden-widowed._

 _Come, cords, come, nurse; I'll to my wedding-bed;_

 _And death, not Romeo, take my maidenhead!_

Nurse:

 _Hie to your chamber: I'll find Romeo_

 _To comfort you: I wot well where he is._

 _Hark ye, your Romeo will be here at night:_

 _I'll to him; he is hid at Laurence' cell._

Juliet:

 _O, find him! give this ring to my true knight,_

 _And bid him come to take his last farewell._

(Exeunt)

Act V, Scene iii:

Enter PARIS, and his Page bearing flowers and a torch

Paris:

 _Give me thy torch, boy: hence, and stand aloof:_

 _Yet put it out, for I would not be seen._

 _Under yond yew-trees lay thee all along,_

 _Holding thine ear close to the hollow ground;_

 _So shall no foot upon the churchyard tread,_

 _Being loose, unfirm, with digging up of graves,_

 _But thou shalt hear it: whistle then to me,_

 _As signal that thou hear'st something approach._

 _Give me those flowers. Do as I bid thee, go._

Page:

[Aside] _I am almost afraid to stand alone_

 _Here in the churchyard; yet I will adventure._

(Retires)

Paris:

 _Sweet flower, with flowers thy bridal bed I strew,-_

 _O woe! thy canopy is dust and stones;-_

 _Which with sweet water nightly I will dew,_

 _Or, wanting that, with tears distill'd by moans:_

 _The obsequies that I for thee will keep_

 _Nightly shall be to strew thy grave and weep._

(The Page whistles)

 _The boy gives warning something doth approach._

 _What cursed foot wanders this way to-night,_

 _To cross my obsequies and true love's rite?_

 _What with a torch! muffle me, night, awhile._

(Retires)

(Enter ROMEO and BALTHASAR, with a torch, mattock, & crowbar)

Romeo:

 _Give me that mattock and the wrenching iron._

 _Hold, take this letter; early in the morning_

 _See thou deliver it to my lord and father._

 _Give me the light: upon thy life, I charge thee,_

 _Whate'er thou hear'st or seest, stand all aloof,_

 _And do not interrupt me in my course._

 _Why I descend into this bed of death,_

 _Is partly to behold my lady's face;_

 _But chiefly to take thence from her dead finger_

 _A precious ring, a ring that I must use_

 _In dear employment: therefore hence, be gone:_

 _But if thou, jealous, dost return to pry_

 _In what I further shall intend to do,_

 _By heaven, I will tear thee joint by joint_

 _And strew this hungry churchyard with thy limbs:_

 _The time and my intents are savage-wild,_

 _More fierce and more inexorable far_

 _Than empty tigers or the roaring sea._

Balthasar:

 _I will be gone, sir, and not trouble you._

Romeo:

 _So shalt thou show me friendship. Take thou that:_

 _Live, and be prosperous: and farewell, good fellow._

Balthasar:

[Aside _] For all this same, I'll hide me hereabout:_

 _His looks I fear, and his intents I doubt._

(Retires)

Romeo:

 _Thou detestable maw, thou womb of death,_

 _Gorged with the dearest morsel of the earth,_

 _Thus I enforce thy rotten jaws to open,_

 _And, in despite, I'll cram thee with more food!_

(Opens the tomb)

Paris:

 _This is that banish'd haughty Montague,_

 _That murder'd my love's cousin, with which grief,_

 _It is supposed, the fair creature died;_

 _And here is come to do some villanous shame_

 _To the dead bodies: I will apprehend him._

(Comes forward)

Stop thy unhallow'd toil, vile Montague!

Can vengeance be pursued further than death?

Condemned villain, I do apprehend thee:

Obey, and go with me; for thou must die.

 **ROMEO**

I must indeed; and therefore came I hither.

Good gentle youth, tempt not a desperate man;

Fly hence, and leave me: think upon these gone;

Let them affright thee. I beseech thee, youth,

Put not another sin upon my head,

By urging me to fury: O, be gone!

By heaven, I love thee better than myself;

For I come hither arm'd against myself:

Stay not, be gone; live, and hereafter say,

A madman's mercy bade thee run away.

 **PARIS**

I do defy thy conjurations,

And apprehend thee for a felon here.

 **ROMEO**

Wilt thou provoke me? then have at thee, boy!

 _They fight_

 **PAGE**

O Lord, they fight! I will go call the watch.

 _Exit_

 **PARIS**

O, I am slain!

 _Falls_

If thou be merciful,

Open the tomb, lay me with Juliet.

 _Dies_

 **ROMEO**

In faith, I will. Let me peruse this face.

Mercutio's kinsman, noble County Paris!

What said my man, when my betossed soul

Did not attend him as we rode? I think

He told me Paris should have married Juliet:

Said he not so? or did I dream it so?

Or am I mad, hearing him talk of Juliet,

To think it was so? O, give me thy hand,

One writ with me in sour misfortune's book!

I'll bury thee in a triumphant grave;

A grave? O no! a lantern, slaughter'd youth,

For here lies Juliet, and her beauty makes

This vault a feasting presence full of light.

Death, lie thou there, by a dead man interr'd.

 _Laying PARIS in the tomb_

How oft when men are at the point of death

Have they been merry! which their keepers call

A lightning before death: O, how may I

Call this a lightning? O my love! my wife!

Death, that hath suck'd the honey of thy breath,

Hath had no power yet upon thy beauty:

Thou art not conquer'd; beauty's ensign yet

Is crimson in thy lips and in thy cheeks,

And death's pale flag is not advanced there.

Tybalt, liest thou there in thy bloody sheet?

O, what more favour can I do to thee,

Than with that hand that cut thy youth in twain

To sunder his that was thine enemy?

Forgive me, cousin! Ah, dear Juliet,

Why art thou yet so fair? shall I believe

That unsubstantial death is amorous,

And that the lean abhorred monster keeps

Thee here in dark to be his paramour?

For fear of that, I still will stay with thee;

And never from this palace of dim night

Depart again: here, here will I remain

With worms that are thy chamber-maids; O, here

Will I set up my everlasting rest,

And shake the yoke of inauspicious stars

From this world-wearied flesh. Eyes, look your last!

Arms, take your last embrace! and, lips, O you

The doors of breath, seal with a righteous kiss

A dateless bargain to engrossing death!

Come, bitter conduct, come, unsavoury guide!

Thou desperate pilot, now at once run on

The dashing rocks thy sea-sick weary bark!

Here's to my love!

 _Drinks_

O true apothecary!

Thy drugs are quick. Thus with a kiss I die.

 _Dies_

 _Enter, at the other end of the churchyard, FRIAR LAURENCE, with a lantern, crow, and spade_

 **FRIAR LAURENCE**

Saint Francis be my speed! how oft to-night

Have my old feet stumbled at graves! Who's there?

 **BALTHASAR**

Here's one, a friend, and one that knows you well.

 **FRIAR LAURENCE**

Bliss be upon you! Tell me, good my friend,

What torch is yond, that vainly lends his light

To grubs and eyeless skulls? as I discern,

It burneth in the Capel's monument.

 **BALTHASAR**

It doth so, holy sir; and there's my master,

One that you love.

 **FRIAR LAURENCE**

Who is it?

 **BALTHASAR**

Romeo.

 **FRIAR LAURENCE**

How long hath he been there?

 **BALTHASAR**

Full half an hour.

 **FRIAR LAURENCE**

Go with me to the vault.

 **BALTHASAR**

I dare not, sir

My master knows not but I am gone hence;

And fearfully did menace me with death,

If I did stay to look on his intents.

 **FRIAR LAURENCE**

Stay, then; I'll go alone. Fear comes upon me:

O, much I fear some ill unlucky thing.

 **BALTHASAR**

As I did sleep under this yew-tree here,

I dreamt my master and another fought,

And that my master slew him.

 **FRIAR LAURENCE**

Romeo!

 _Advances_

Alack, alack, what blood is this, which stains

The stony entrance of this sepulchre?

What mean these masterless and gory swords

To lie discolour'd by this place of peace?

 _Enters the tomb_

Romeo! O, pale! Who else? what, Paris too?

And steep'd in blood? Ah, what an unkind hour

Is guilty of this lamentable chance!

The lady stirs.

 _JULIET wakes_

 **JULIET**

O comfortable friar! where is my lord?

I do remember well where I should be,

And there I am. Where is my Romeo?

 _Noise within_

 **FRIAR LAURENCE**

I hear some noise. Lady, come from that nest

Of death, contagion, and unnatural sleep:

A greater power than we can contradict

Hath thwarted our intents. Come, come away.

Thy husband in thy bosom there lies dead;

And Paris too. Come, I'll dispose of thee

Among a sisterhood of holy nuns:

Stay not to question, for the watch is coming;

Come, go, good Juliet,

 _Noise again_

I dare no longer stay.

 **JULIET**

Go, get thee hence, for I will not away.

 _Exit FRIAR LAURENCE_

What's here? a cup, closed in my true love's hand?

Poison, I see, hath been his timeless end:

O churl! drunk all, and left no friendly drop

To help me after? I will kiss thy lips;

Haply some poison yet doth hang on them,

To make die with a restorative.

 _Kisses him_

Thy lips are warm.

 **First Watchman**

[Within] Lead, boy: which way?

 **JULIET**

Yea, noise? then I'll be brief. O happy dagger!

 _Snatching ROMEO's dagger_

This is thy sheath;

 _Stabs herself_

there rust, and let me die.

 _Falls on ROMEO's body, and dies_

 _Enter Watch, with the Page of PARIS_

 **PAGE**

This is the place; there, where the torch doth burn.

 **First Watchman**

The ground is bloody; search about the churchyard:

Go, some of you, whoe'er you find attach.

Pitiful sight! here lies the county slain,

And Juliet bleeding, warm, and newly dead,

Who here hath lain these two days buried.

Go, tell the prince: run to the Capulets:

Raise up the Montagues: some others search:

We see the ground whereon these woes do lie;

But the true ground of all these piteous woes

We cannot without circumstance descry.

 _Re-enter some of the Watch, with BALTHASAR_

 **Second Watchman**

Here's Romeo's man; we found him in the churchyard.

 **First Watchman**

Hold him in safety, till the prince come hither.

 _Re-enter others of the Watch, with FRIAR LAURENCE_

 **Third Watchman**

Here is a friar, that trembles, sighs and weeps:

We took this mattock and this spade from him,

As he was coming from this churchyard side.

 **First Watchman**

A great suspicion: stay the friar too.

 _Enter the PRINCE and Attendants_

 **PRINCE**

What misadventure is so early up,

That calls our person from our morning's rest?

 _Enter CAPULET, LADY CAPULET, and others_

 **CAPULET**

What should it be, that they so shriek abroad?

 **LADY CAPULET**

The people in the street cry Romeo,

Some Juliet, and some Paris; and all run,

With open outcry toward our monument.

 **PRINCE**

What fear is this which startles in our ears?

 **First Watchman**

Sovereign, here lies the County Paris slain;

And Romeo dead; and Juliet, dead before,

Warm and new kill'd.

 **PRINCE**

Search, seek, and know how this foul murder comes.

 **First Watchman**

Here is a friar, and slaughter'd Romeo's man;

With instruments upon them, fit to open

These dead men's tombs.

 **CAPULET**

O heavens! O wife, look how our daughter bleeds!

This dagger hath mista'en-for, lo, his house

Is empty on the back of Montague,-

And it mis-sheathed in my daughter's bosom!

 **LADY CAPULET**

O me! this sight of death is as a bell,

That warns my old age to a sepulchre.

 _Enter MONTAGUE and others_

 **PRINCE**

Come, Montague; for thou art early up,

To see thy son and heir more early down.

 **MONTAGUE**

Alas, my liege, my wife is dead to-night;

Grief of my son's exile hath stopp'd her breath:

What further woe conspires against mine age?

 **PRINCE**

Look, and thou shalt see.

 **MONTAGUE**

O thou untaught! what manners is in this?

To press before thy father to a grave?

 **PRINCE**

Seal up the mouth of outrage for a while,

Till we can clear these ambiguities,

And know their spring, their head, their

true descent;

And then will I be general of your woes,

And lead you even to death: meantime forbear,

And let mischance be slave to patience.

Bring forth the parties of suspicion.

 **FRIAR LAURENCE**

I am the greatest, able to do least,

Yet most suspected, as the time and place

Doth make against me of this direful murder;

And here I stand, both to impeach and purge

Myself condemned and myself excused.

 **PRINCE**

Then say at once what thou dost know in this.

 **FRIAR LAURENCE**

I will be brief, for my short date of breath

Is not so long as is a tedious tale.

Romeo, there dead, was husband to that Juliet;

And she, there dead, that Romeo's faithful wife:

I married them; and their stol'n marriage-day

Was Tybalt's dooms-day, whose untimely death

Banish'd the new-made bridegroom from the city,

For whom, and not for Tybalt, Juliet pined.

You, to remove that siege of grief from her,

Betroth'd and would have married her perforce

To County Paris: then comes she to me,

And, with wild looks, bid me devise some mean

To rid her from this second marriage,

Or in my cell there would she kill herself.

Then gave I her, so tutor'd by my art,

A sleeping potion; which so took effect

As I intended, for it wrought on her

The form of death: meantime I writ to Romeo,

That he should hither come as this dire night,

To help to take her from her borrow'd grave,

Being the time the potion's force should cease.

But he which bore my letter, Friar John,

Was stay'd by accident, and yesternight

Return'd my letter back. Then all alone

At the prefixed hour of her waking,

Came I to take her from her kindred's vault;

Meaning to keep her closely at my cell,

Till I conveniently could send to Romeo:

But when I came, some minute ere the time

Of her awaking, here untimely lay

The noble Paris and true Romeo dead.

She wakes; and I entreated her come forth,

And bear this work of heaven with patience:

But then a noise did scare me from the tomb;

And she, too desperate, would not go with me,

But, as it seems, did violence on herself.

All this I know; and to the marriage

Her nurse is privy: and, if aught in this

Miscarried by my fault, let my old life

Be sacrificed, some hour before his time,

Unto the rigour of severest law.

 **PRINCE**

We still have known thee for a holy man.

Where's Romeo's man? what can he say in this?

 **BALTHASAR**

I brought my master news of Juliet's death;

And then in post he came from Mantua

To this same place, to this same monument.

This letter he early bid me give his father,

And threatened me with death, going in the vault,

I departed not and left him there.

 **PRINCE**

Give me the letter; I will look on it.

Where is the county's page, that raised the watch?

Sirrah, what made your master in this place?

 **PAGE**

He came with flowers to strew his lady's grave;

And bid me stand aloof, and so I did:

Anon comes one with light to ope the tomb;

And by and by my master drew on him;

And then I ran away to call the watch.

 **PRINCE**

This letter doth make good the friar's words,

Their course of love, the tidings of her death:

And here he writes that he did buy a poison

Of a poor 'pothecary, and therewithal

Came to this vault to die, and lie with Juliet.

Where be these enemies? Capulet! Montague!

See, what a scourge is laid upon your hate,

That heaven finds means to kill your joys with love.

And I for winking at your discords too

Have lost a brace of kinsmen: all are punish'd.

 **CAPULET**

O brother Montague, give me thy hand:

This is my daughter's jointure, for no more

Can I demand.

 **MONTAGUE**

But I can give thee more:

For I will raise her statue in pure gold;

That while Verona by that name is known,

There shall no figure at such rate be set

As that of true and faithful Juliet.

 **CAPULET**

As rich shall Romeo's by his lady's lie;

Poor sacrifices of our enmity!

 **PRINCE**

A glooming peace this morning with it brings;

The sun, for sorrow, will not show his head:

Go hence, to have more talk of these sad things;

Some shall be pardon'd, and some punished:

For never was a story of more woe

Than this of Juliet and her Romeo.

 _Exeunt_


End file.
